Breathe Her In Read online

  Doug has set up a team to take down Vega immediately after the deal is done tonight. Ford won’t be implicated right away, but that can all be handled with Rafe’s testimony. It will be messier than what they originally planned, but we’ve got people on our side that are willing to help. We’ve also had papers drawn saying that Claire gets custody of Della if anything should happen to Rafe.

  I’ve gone from standing still and looking out the window, to pacing, to trying to sit with Della. Nothing is helping to calm this sense of dread that’s working its way through my system. I’m always worried when Rafe has to go out to do a job for Ford, but tonight I’m on high alert. Hopefully my hormones are playing a trick on me, and I haven’t all of a sudden developed a sixth sense for detecting when he’s in trouble.

  I want to cry from relief when I see the headlights of Rafe’s car pull up in the drive. It’s short lived, though, when he doesn’t come strolling through the kitchen. I get a knock on the door instead. It isn’t unheard of for the twins or Finn to come by and check on us on nights when Rafe is working, so I open the door without giving it a second thought.

  As soon as Della starts whimpering and clawing at my side, I regret my decision.

  I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.

  A police cruiser is in the driveway, but the man standing in front of me is out of uniform.

  “Eleanor,” he drawls, a wad of dip sticking out of his lip.

  Rafe’s warnings about Ford echo though my head. I don’t need him to introduce himself to know it’s him. Deep down, I know. This can’t be good. For us or for Rafe.

  Della’s whimpers are turning into animalistic cries. My instincts are telling me to slam the door and get inside, but he’s got one arm braced on the frame and his foot wedged in the opening.

  “Rafe sent me to check on y’all.”

  I know better. Rafe would never send him over here. “Well, we’re fine. Thank you for stopping by.” I pull on the knob to get the door shut, but he barrels through, pushing past me and barging into the kitchen. My eyes dart around the room, trying to remember where I last put my phone.

  “Ahh, there’s my old friend.” He’s squatting in front of Della, running a finger down her cheek. “You’re still just as pretty as you always were. You look like your momma. Have you missed me?”

  Bile is rising in my throat. Della is trembling, pale, and whimpering. She’s cowering in the corner, trying to push into the small space between the refrigerator and the cabinets, but she’s too scared to move. Things start clicking into place, and it doesn’t take me long to realize that this bastard is the one who hurt Della. I start to move toward the kitchen table, slowly, when I spot my phone. I’m about a foot away from it when cold metal is pushed against my temple.

  “I wouldn’t touch that if I were you,” he says. “Sit down.”

  I lower myself into the chair closest to me, gun pressed to my head, and watch through hazy vision as he picks up my phone and pockets it. “Now, you’ll sit and be quiet while me and my friend Della get reacquainted.” He looks at her, trembling in the corner. “Have you missed your old friend Ford? We have a lot of catching up to do. I was watching you at school before your brother took you out, but now that I’m here, we can really get friendly.”

  A sob rips through my chest as I watch a stream of urine run down her leg.

  He moves closer to Della, laughing. “Is that what we’re doin’?” he asks. “You gonna act scared? Like you don’t love what I do to you? Like my hands all over your body don’t feel good?”

  “Please don’t do this,” I beg him. I can barely hear my voice through the pounding heartbeat echoing through my head. He whips his head around, eyes wild.

  “Shut your goddamn mouth, Eleanor. This is between me and Della.”

  “She’s just a baby,” I cry.

  “Another word and I’ll make you shut up,” he yells as he cocks the hammer of his gun back. His eyes dart between the two of us, and he’s waving the gun in the air like a lunatic. I clamp my mouth shut and he looks back at Della, a nasty smile taking over his face. “Now, be a good little girl and show me where your room is.” He looks back to me. “Unless you’d like to watch.”

  I can’t let this happen. Despite the fact that he’s got a gun, I can’t let him hurt Della again. She would never survive it. Neither would Rafe.

  I jump up from the chair, and he lunges for me. “Run, De-,” is all I can manage to get out before everything goes dark.

  29. Rafe

  “Someone fucking tipped him off,” I growl into the phone. “He didn’t show. He’s always there.”

  “I can assure you it wasn’t anyone on my end, Rafe. My department’s clean. How hard did you push Ford on the phone?”

  “Not too hard. I didn’t want him to get suspicious. He must have known something was up, though, and had someone warn Vega. Fuck, it could have been anyone. I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  Doug sighs into the phone. “Did you ever talk to Vega personally about this drop?”

  “No. It was all set up through one of his guys. I hardly ever talk to him.”

  “Maybe it was on his end. You gonna call him?”

  What a fucking headache. “Yeah. I need to check on Eleanor first. She’s not answering. I’m pulling into the neighborhood now. Let me deal with that and I’ll call him.”

  “Alright, man. Let me know.”

  “What the fuck?” I hiss.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “There’s a cop car in my driveway.”

  “Stay on the phone with me and go see what’s happening.”

  This whole night has had me on edge. Rather than bursting through the door, I walk around the house, looking and listening for anything that will let me know what I might be walking in on. I don’t hear anything by the front. Doug’s talking to me, but I don’t answer him.

  As I’m rounding the side of the house where the bedrooms are, I hear Della’s distinct cries, along with a voice I’d recognize anywhere.

  “Fuck,” I exhale.

  “What’s going on?”

  “Ford’s here. I gotta go.”

  “Don’t hang up, Rafe,” Doug demands. “Keep the phone on.”

  Della’s screams are getting louder. I jog to the front of the house. The first thing I see when I get through the kitchen door is Eleanor, laid out on the floor. Jesus, what did that bastard do to her? I drop down next to her, and with hands I can barely control, feel for a pulse. It’s there, she’s breathing, but has a nasty gash on her head. “Call 911,” I bark out at Doug, and hang up the phone.

  “FORD,” I bellow. I’m gonna kill the mother fucker.

  He comes out of the back, dragging my sister behind him. She’s still screaming, even though I’m in her sights. The fact that I’m here hasn’t done anything to calm her. Her clothes are shredded, and his face is marred with deep claw marks. Blood is dripping into his eyes.

  “You came back just in time for the party.” His eyes are wild, crazy. He’s high as a kite.

  “Let go of my sister, Ford. She’s got nothing to do with us.”

  “Oh, but she’s how this all started. I’ve been friends with little Della for years.” He turns back to her, raking his eyes up and down her body. “You see, Rafe,” he says to me, even though he doesn’t take his eyes off of her, “your momma and I had a deal worked out. I gave her what she needed to stay high, and she gave me Della to keep me happy.”

  “You sick mother fucker.”

  “Actually,” he laughs, “that would be sister fucker.”

  I lunge for him, knocking him into the cabinets. He’s fucking strong, thanks to the drugs that are coursing through his system. He matches me punch for punch, all while Della stands beside Eleanor and screams.

  “Go, Della,” I scream.

  “Gun,” she yells.

  It takes me a second to register that she’s speaking. I lift my head up and see that Ford has his gun out of the holster. We struggle over
control of it, and I manage to knock it out of his hand. It skitters across the floor, just out of both of our reaches.

  We drop down the second the gun falls. I can see Della running to the back of the house. I’ve got to get to that gun before Ford does. Crawling across the tile, Ford on top of me, my fingers are mere inches from it. Searing pain hits the back of my thigh and I let out a roar. Just as I look over my shoulder, I can see Ford pulling a knife out of the back of my leg. He comes down with it again, hitting me in my lower back. I scream once more, the pain blinding, and reach for the gun.

  In the distance, I can hear the faint wail of sirens. As Ford and I fight over the gun, the sirens are growing louder. Eleanor is starting to wake up and moan. Della comes running out of the back of the house. I flip over onto my back, get a glance of the blood that’s oozing out of my body, and fight with everything I have for possession of that gun.

  The kitchen door is thrown open just as the gun goes off.

  30. Eleanor

  Strange voices are all around me. People are talking to me, touching me, but I can’t make my eyes open. Della’s screaming in the background, sirens are wailing, and I can make out the flashing of red and blue lights behind my closed lids.

  Just as I’m willing myself to try and pry my eyes open, someone forces them open for me, shining a light in them.

  “Ma’am? Can you tell me your name?”

  “Umm,” I mutter, “Eleanor.”

  “Eleanor, can you tell me what happened to you?”

  He moves the light from my eyes and I go to push the hair out of my face. I wince when I touch my head, pain shooting through my skull.

  “You have a severe contusion on your head. You were knocked unconscious. What happened in here tonight?” the stranger asks.

  “Can you help me sit up?” As soon as he helps me up I’m hit with unbearable nausea. “Oh God,” I cry, leaning over to the side and throwing up. The guy sitting with me rattles off some medical lingo to someone else in the room, something about a concussion, and they bring me a cloth to wipe my mouth. Della is still off in the distance crying.

  “Goddamn it, someone get her out of here,” I hear another voice command, which prompts her screams to grow louder.

  “Don’t touch me!” she yells, and everything comes back to me, in horrific flashes.

  “Leave her alone!” I don’t even know who I’m talking to. Pushing through the pounding in my head and the churning in my stomach, I lift my eyes from the floor and peer out, searching for Della, who I’m sure is traumatized beyond all measure right now. I don’t know what happened after I was knocked out. I don’t even want to imagine it.

  The kitchen is a scene from a horror movie.

  Rafe and Ford are lying on the floor, motionless, surrounded by paramedics, cops, and pools of blood. A feral cry rips through the space. I’m not sure if the cries are coming from me or Della at this point, but the noises and the picture laid out in front of me are too much. I call out to Della, but I don’t know if she makes it over to me or not.

  Next thing I know, I’m waking up in a hospital bed.

  31. Rafe

  “I need to see them,” I growl, pulling against the handcuff that’s attached to the bed rail.

  “They won’t let anyone in here. I promise you, both of them are fine. I just left Claire’s house. Everyone’s okay, Rafe, despite everything that happened.”

  “How are you in here, then?” I sound like a sullen child, but I don’t fucking care. I need to see Della and Eleanor.

  “I have a badge. They have to let me in,” Doug tells me. “We’re gonna get you out of this mess.”

  “I killed him,” I whisper, closing my eyes. Admitting that I took someone’s life is not easy. Yes, he molested my sister, but I never intended to kill him. I would rather he rot in a jail cell for the rest of his life.

  “Don’t say another word,” Doug tells me, prompting me to open them. “It was self-defense. You’ve got the knife wounds to prove it. You’ve got 911 calls from both me and your sister, Eleanor’s testimony, Della’s testimony if she’ll give it, and the paramedics who witnessed the shooting when they got to your house. The two of you were wrestling for the gun, they said. But, don’t say anything to anyone until you speak to your attorney.”

  “I don’t have a fucking attorney.”

  “Yeah, you do. Claire mentioned something about someone in your family coming from Fairhope. He’s on his way.”

  I let out a huge breath. “Miller Ashby.” Thank Christ.

  “That’s it. Miller’s on his way. If anyone comes in here and tries to question you, don’t tell them anything before Miller gets here.”

  “Can I talk to her? Call her?” I ask, switching gears. He told me everyone is okay, but I need to hear it for myself.

  Doug looks through the doorway at the posted guards. They’re both playing on their phones, not really interested in what’s happening in here. Hell, he could probably sneak Eleanor in my room and they wouldn’t notice.

  He hands me his phone, and I take it with my hand that’s not cuffed to the bed. “I’ll give you some privacy.”

  “Thanks, man,” I tell him, fumbling with the phone. The IV pulls in my hand as I dial the number and put the phone to my ear.

  “Hello?” Her voice is weak. She sounds exhausted, but I could cry with relief. I never thought I’d hear her voice again.

  “Hey, baby.”

  “Rafe,” she cries, “Oh my God, are you alright?” I can barely make out her words through her tears. “They wouldn’t let me come see you before I checked out of the hospital.”

  “I’m okay.” It’s hard as fuck to talk with this lump in my throat. “How’s your head? How’s the baby?”

  “Everything is good. I’ll show you the latest ultrasound pictures as soon as you’re out of there.”

  “Eleanor, I don’t think I’ll be coming home.”

  “Don’t say that, Rafe. We’ve been on the phone with Miller all day. He’s gonna get you out of this. He promised Claire.”

  Miller shouldn’t be making promises he can’t keep. I don’t want to burst her bubble, so I change the subject. “What about Dells?” I’m met with silence. “Eleanor?”

  “She’s dealing with everything that happened in her own way, Rafe. She’s not eating or sleeping, but she’ll come around. One of her therapists came over yesterday to see her. She should be coming back this afternoon.”

  A single tear rolls down the bridge of my nose, and I can’t wipe it because I’m cuffed to the fucking bed. I can’t believe that sick bastard was the one that hurt her when she was with my mother. I take back what I said about jail… I would kill him again if I had the chance.

  “Rafe, baby, she’ll be alright. She was checked out at the hospital. You got to her just in time. He didn’t hurt her again. You saved her.”

  I let out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, I did a bang up job of keeping her safe.”

  “You didn’t know it was him, Rafe,” she whispers. “And he’ll never hurt her again. He’s gone.”

  I clear my throat. “Let me talk to her.”

  “Hold on,” she says. I hear her steps echoing through Claire’s house.

  “Della, your brother wants to talk to you. I’m gonna put the phone up to your ear. Is that okay?” After a few seconds she tells me to hold on.

  “Hey, Della Doo. How you doin’?” I wait for a response, but it never comes. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything he did to you, and I’m sorry you had to see what I did to him. But it’s over, Dells. No one will ever hurt you again. I promise. I love you.”

  Just as I move to press ‘end’, I hear a weak, hoarse, I love you through the line. It’s the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard.

  Doug comes back in the room, Miller on his heels. His clothes are wrinkled. I must be his first stop.

  “You’ve gotten yourself into quite a mess,” he says, in lieu of a greeting.

  “Can you get me out of it?”
r />   “I sure as fuck hope so. I’ve been on the phone since yesterday, taking statements from the paramedics that got to the house right as the gun went off. It looks like a pretty cut and dry case.” He runs his hand through his hair. “What I don’t understand, though, is why he was there in the first place. I thought this shit with Della ended when you got custody. There are some holes in this story, and I need you to be honest with me if I’m gonna save your ass.”

  “Pull up a chair, man, and get comfortable. This might take a while.”

  He looks at Doug, then back at me. “Do we need to do this alone?”

  I shake my head. “He knows it all. This is Doug, my PO. He was trying to help me out of this mess, before it all blew up in my face. He can stay.”

  Miller pulls up a chair and gets the bedside tray situated in front of him, setting out legal pads, pens, and a recorder. When he’s settled, I launch into my convoluted story, starting at the beginning. He hears about the set up when I was eighteen, he hears about my time in jail. I tell him how Ford approached me when I got out of jail, offering up custody of my sister if I would deal for him and rat on the bigger ones.

  He never says a word, just jots down notes and nods at all the appropriate places. Miller knows Della’s history, so I don’t delve into that part of the story. That is, until we get to the events of the night I killed Ford. I tell Miller about the deal with Vega that never happened, and Doug’s involvement. He listens in stunned silence when I get to the part of my tale where Ford was at my house, with a screaming Della and an unconscious Eleanor.